Assessment Institute
The Assessment Institute, whose idea originated from discussion with the Senate Committee on Assessment and Institutional Effectiveness, is a four-day program, over four successive Fridays offered both in the fall and the spring semesters, that covers an overview of assessment practices at the college and in higher education; course assessment, program review, and accreditation at the institutional and program level; use of data from the Office of Institutional Research and Assessment; and the uses of classroom assessment practices for the development of conference presentations and publishable articles in the study of teaching and learning. The focus of the institute, however, is course assessment. Each faculty member in the institute completes a course assessment plan by the end of the institute and implements that plan for the duration of the same semester, completing a course assessment report by the end of the semester, to be submitted to the facilitators of the institute. Completed reports are posted to the college’s website. As with the New Faculty Institute, the Assessment Institute is administered through Blackboard, where resource materials like rubrics and assessment guidelines are made available. Each session, faculty complete an online survey to help the facilitators to assess the effectiveness of the session; at the end, a separate survey assesses the overall impact of the institute, providing outcomes for the facilitators for continuous improvement. Faculty who are interested in participating in the Assessment Institute are asked to have their department chairs nominate them.
